delighted to be

This Week’s Menu / october 17, 2011

This week’s menu isn’t too exciting, but here it is anyway:

Veggie Burgers (because I ended up loving them so much!!)

Baked Potato + steamed veggies

Veggie Pasta (new recipe…we’ll see how promising it is before I share it)

Stuffed Bell Peppers + Black Bean & Corn Salad with blue corn tortilla chips

I feel like I should also mention that I planned out my entire menu, going through each recipe to see what I needed and already had on hand, and while writing down the last few ingredients I dropped my list. And under the fridge it went, into the dark abyss, never to be seen again.

So I spent another fifteen to twenty minutes doing the entire thing all over again. Ah, such is life.

I’d also like to announce I exercised (aka went running for 20-30 minutes) FOUR times last week! I know, I know, that seems silly. But for me that’s a big deal. It’s hot outside and I hate being even the slightest bit sweaty and pushing Jack uphill in the stroller is just unbearable. I hate exercising but Tyler set up a reward system. If I meet my goal of 4x/week for the whole month, I get $30 extra spending money. This month it’s going towards new feet for our couches. I’ll expound on that more if it ever gets done. ;)

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Recipe: Veggie Burgers / october 8, 2011

These are my favorite veggie burgers! Straight from — you guessed it — ohsheglows.com.

Doesn’t this beast of a burger look delicious?

Perfectly crispy on the outside, while still chewy and thick on the inside. Lots of good flavor in there and totally worth the effort!

I added my own twist, using homemade hamburger buns and a homemade spicy tomato mayonnaise I whipped up. (I added leftover roasted tomato, garlic, and coconut soup to mayo, with a few pinches of cayenne.) If we would have had avocados handy, that would have been a delicious topping too.

Because Tyler loves homemade french fries, I fried some as a surprise side dish for him. We used the sweet potato fry method, where you dredge it in a mixture of cornstarch and club soda before dipping them in, but it turns out that only really works on sweet potatoes, not regular potatoes. Weird, huh?

Recipe here, from Oh She Glows.

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Recipes: Week 3 / october 3, 2011

via ohsheglows.com

We are now in week 3 of our vegan diet, and have no plans of turning back. Go health!

We feel great! I even exercised multiple times last week (gasp!). One night I took Jack running in the stroller (two miles…yeah, if I could only make that six miles instead) and a little old man on his way to the mailbox stopped to cheer me on. He told me I look great and all my hard work will pay off. I told him, “Yeah, it better pay off! Pushing this kid in the stroller is hard work! He’s heavy!”

Tyler seems to really like the things I am cooking so far, so no complaining there. Unless he’s lying. (Honey, are you being honest with me?) Jack seems fine with it too. But when has that kid ever rejected food?!

I get most of my recipes now from OhSheGlows.com. I like her flavor profile, and she cooks more “comfort” food, which is nice when you’re adjusting to eating this way. As always, I make little tweaks here and there, using what I have on hand.

Here are last week’s meals:

Butternut Squash Mac n’ Cheeze (pretty good, but takes getting used to. Tyler loved it.)

Tortilla Soup (YUM. Would definitely make again!)

Sweet Potato, Black Bean, Spinach, and Pepper Enchiladas with Cilantro Avocado Cream Sauce (YUMMMM. We’d definitely make these again, too. We gobbled them up!)

High Protein & Oil-Free Basil Pesto (for pesto pasta and pesto pizza with grilled onions, garlic, and roasted tomatoes) (pretty good. Doesn’t taste like a traditional pesto, but we still loved it. Tyler likes it more than a regular pesto.)

This week, we are making:

Coconut Curry with Brown Rice

15-Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta + Artisan Bread + Veggies

Our Perfect Veggie Burgers + homemade whole-wheat buns + homemade french fries

Roasted Tomato Basil Pesto Pasta + Artisan Bread + Roasted Broccoli

Fajitas (which are really just a bunch of grilled veggies inside a whole-wheat tortilla)

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Recipe: Vegan Zucchini Muffins / september 23, 2011

Wait, did I just say vegan??

After watching the documentary Forks Over Knives and concurrently reading The China Study, I’ve decided to drastically cut back on my animal intake. Somehow Tyler jumped on the bandwagon too and we’ve been changing our eating habits. Or in other words, the Jones household is taking on a whole foods, plant-based diet. We’re not vegan. We’ve got eggs in our fridge, goldfish crackers in our cupboard, and a stockpile of chicken stock. We’ve just decided to drastically cut back on some things.

For breakfast and lunch, Tyler is on his own. His bowl of frosted mini spooners (or was it oatmeal squares this morning?) and milk for breakfast isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. He eats leftovers or pb&j for lunch, along with a yogurt, string cheese, and goldfish crackers.

For breakfast and lunch, I eat with Jack. We make oatmeal and fruit most mornings, or I’ll have cheerios and soymilk if I’m not feeling the oatmeal. For lunch, we mix things up. Sometimes it’s pb&j or leftovers. Or salad. Yesterday we made “fajitas” (I sauteed bell pepper, carrots and onions and rolled them into whole wheat tortillas). Yum.

For dinner, Tyler has agreed to eat what I make, with one condition: “it MUST taste good.” I am also on a $50/week grocery budget, which surprisingly has been easier than ever! Here are the meals we have made so far:

Roasted Butternut Squash and Black Bean Enchiladas (would DEFINITELY make these again – I have one friend that told me she makes these every week!)

Broccoli “Cheese” Pasta Bake (Great, but needs more flavor. Maybe it’s because I used soymilk instead of almond milk? I’ll have to tweak it a little bit or substitute it with this sauce instead. We’d make it again. Tyler took the leftovers for lunch two days in a row!)

Black Bean and Millet Stuffed Bell Peppers (Yummy, but again, needed more flavor. Up the spice content on this one and make sure you toast the millet beforehand! We’d make them again.)

Chocolate Chip Banana Brownies (SO GOOD! They are so low in fat you don’t feel guilty eating them, and they are fudgy and moist. Not necessarily a brownie texture, but definitely hits that sweet spot if you’ve been craving chocolate!)

Roasted Root Vegetable Candy (I ate these for “dessert” last night. Vegetables for dessert??)

Black Bean Cocoa Quinoa (Hated this. I ended up dumping it I was so revolted by the flavors. Cinnamon and cocoa is not a great combo for me.)

Zucchini Bread Muffins (FANTASTIC. I am so happy I made a double batch!!)

Sweet Potato Stew (Loved this, recommended it to my sister, and her family loved it as well!)

Veggie Stir Fry with Tofu and Brown Rice (Marinate your tofu in 1 T. lemon juice, 3 T. soy sauce, 1 T. honey and fry up in a pan. Toss 1 T. hoisin sauce, 2 T. soy sauce, 1 T. minced ginger, 2 t. minced garlic, 2 T. lemon juice and 1 T. honey with your veggies and stir fry. Serve over brown rice. Definitely a keeper.)

Baked Potatoes (No real recipe here, but toppings could include roasted broccoli…mmmm)

Tonight is a leftovers night. Turns out our food is so filling we eat a lot less of it! (Or do we eat more and our recipes are just larger? Hmm.) I’ll keep you all posted when I come across more recipes.

As for now, got 2 zucchini? Go make those zucchini muffins (double the recipe). They are to die for. (No, really. Even Jack gobbles them right up!)

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